The Tripura government is working to promote horti eco-tourism in the state, which has a huge demand abroad, said here Thursday Agriculture Minister Ratan Lal Nath as he announces that four out of the total eight districts of the state has already achieved self-sufficiency in food grain production as the concern department is working to further increase the food grain production along with the target to double the farmer’s income.
Speaking to reporters during a visit to the state-run horticulture research complex at Nagicherra in the outskirts of Agartala city in the sideline of inauguration of master training program on black pepper cultivation for farmers, the Minister said his department has already started preparing Detailed Project Report (DPR) for the proposed tourism initiative.
Set up in 1981, the 44 hectare Horticulture Research Complex at Nagicherra was mandated to research on introduction, acclimatization and evaluation of major plantation crops, establishment of germplasm bank for indigenous and exogenous horticultural crops for future research and production of elite planting materials.
Nath, the agriculture and horticulture Minister said that his department is contemplating starting a host of initiatives to reap the benefits of untapped resources like palm oil, which has to be largely imported from abroad despite having suitable growing conditions in the state.
The Minister said, “We are trying to promote cultivation of red palm oil. We have to import a lot of this oil from abroad, especially from Malaysia. Tripura’s soil condition is good for the growth of oil palm and if we can produce largely, companies from abroad would purchase directly from us”.
While Mizoram has palm oil processing centres in close proximity, agriculture and horticulture minister Nath said his government would also try to set up similar processing units in the state.
Nath said agriculture is the mainstay of the state’s growth and 43 percent of the Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) is from the agriculture department, so without development of this sector the development of the state is not possible.
“We have to stand on the shoulder of agriculture. If we do industries, it has to be based on agriculture or else we can’t be successful. We have developed a lot in the service and tertiary sectors”, the minister said.
He added that his department is working tirelessly to make Tripura self sufficient in food grain and also increase the income of the farmers by adopting new technology, crops including spices in which the profit margin is more but one of the biggest hurdle is availability of land.
He said 2.55 thousand hectare, which 24 percent of the state’s entire landmass, is cultivable land and though the state’s production and growth trajectory is good, the overall production is low since cultivable area is less.
“West Bengal, Assam, Uttar Pradesh are far behind Tripura in terms of paddy production per hectare”, the minister said but added since the overall cultivable land area is less in Tripura, the cumulative production is less.
“We are trying to get maximum production out of less lands. Our agriculture experts recently visited Vietnam, which is developed in agriculture technology. They have learnt different approaches from there and we shall try to implement those here”, he said.
However, Nath said South Tripura, Gomati, Sepahijala and Unakoti district are self sufficient in food grain production so far.
The minister said while the four other districts are not self sufficient in food grain production, West Tripura is dependent for food grains since it has the highest population in the state.
In his department’s approach to achieve self sufficiency in food grain production, the agriculture minister said stress is being laid to boost food grain production in districts where self sufficiency has already been achieved and to boost production in districts which are behind.
